Airplanes, cats, guns, war, the more than occasional rant about the party of the Confederacy, the spinelessness of the Democraps and ramblings about anything else that flits through the somewhat offbeat mind of an armed lesbian pinko as she slides down the Razor Blade of Life.

Words of Advice:

"Never Feel Sorry For Anyone Who Owns an Airplane."-- Tina Marie

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

"Flying the Airplane is More Important than Radioing Your Plight to a Person on the GroundWho is Incapable of Understanding or Doing Anything About It." -- Unknown

"There seems to be almost no problem that Congress cannot, by diligent efforts and careful legislative drafting, make ten times worse." -- Me

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Snitch to Come in Your Car

Right. And since your car would be broadcasting its speed, location, direction of travel, whether or not its wipers and/or headlights were on, you'd have no expectation of privacy in any of that information.

Which means that government(s) would be free to collect it.

Which means that corporations would collect it to sell you targeted ads.

Maybe you're on a strict diet for medical reasons, so now your car would rat you out for stopping at the local Retch `n Run for a cheeseburger, fries and a shake. Maybe your insurance company will adjust your rates because you use your brakes too much (one already does this).

Here's my reaction: No. Fucking. Way. I'll happily pour repair money into used (non-wireless) cars. I already carry one government spying device with me most of the time, I don't need one in my car.

I don't know the NTSB lunatics who came up with this idea, but they should be forced to read the 4th Amendment aloud and then flogged on the Washington Mall with an old set of tire chains.

However if you don't have a tracker or a car that is chatty I'm sure some regulation will mandate it even for your '53 merc. Or instead the insurance companies will or your rates will go from nose dragger rates to those typical of an experimental tail dragger low time pilot.

I saw this coming twenty years ago when I was fresh out of the FORD two year college program.

This is not new technology by any means and yes, it is very easy for a cop to be able to plug a scan tool in to your communication port and download every parameter of data on your speed right now.

I worked on new cars for ten years and hate computerised cars with a burning passion.

The newest vehicle I drive is thirty years old.Even the department of motor vehicles lists it as a classic and in a couple of years I will be able to buy collector vehicle plates for it and never have to buy tags again.

As for driving and maintaining an older vehicle, as long as parts are available, do a cost benefit study.The amount of money you spend every month on a new car versus that same amount going towards restoring a classic steel bumpered car that has stopped depreciating.By the time you would have paid off that new car the value of it would have dropped by half and at the same time, the value of the classic would have at least doubled.

Double bonus points, you now have a bitchin' cool car.

Why more people haven't figured this out is beyond me other than they have been trained like Pavlov's dog that they have to have the newest car available.

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